Original airport control tower.

Yesterday, I drove a friend out to the airport to catch a plane and go visit her retired relatives in Florida. I explained as we entered the airport property that the expansive runways and modern terminal is a far cry from the original little airstrip that was Newburgh’s first aviation foothold.

The property on which Stewart Airport was built was once a farm with the nickname Stony Lonesome. Yes, that is the same name as the back gate to USMA West Point because of the military academy’s connection to Newburgh’s airport, a connection that began in the 1930’s. Stony Lonesome was a 220- acre parcel west of Union Avenue and south of the old Cochecton Turnpike (now Route 17K) one of the earliest roads heading west from the Hudson River. It’s original deed traced the land’s ownership back to a grant from the king of England and that deed included a clause that any silver or gold found on the land by subsequent owners must be given to the English monarch. In all its history as a farm and then airport there are no reports of precious metals being discovered, however.

The Stony Lonesome farmland was purchased to add extra grazing land to the Brookside Dairy farm owned and operated by the Stewart family. Lachlan Stewart, the family patriarch, was a ship’s captain who came from Scotland in 1840 and retired from sailing packet schooners and sloops from Newburgh to run a lumber business and a dairy.

The Stewart dairy was called Brookside Farm and appears on many old maps on land that is just east of the present bus terminal. The ponds on the farm were harvested for ice in winter and the site of Stewart’s Brookside Ice Company office on Broadway became the site of the Buick dealership run by Archie Stewart in the 20th century. By the 1950’s a large section of Brookside Farm was rebuilt into the Brookside Drive-In Theater and the early superstore “Big Scot.”

Samuel Stewart, Lachlan’s son, had a nephew Archie who married the daughter of Newburgh Mayor Herbert Warden. Archie was a fan of aviation and Herb Warden was a booster for his city looking for ways to increase its potential. They brought their idea of a commercial airport for Newburgh to Uncle Samuel who agreed to deed his western hardscrabble grazing property beyond Union Avenue (Stony Lonesome) to the city by 1930. Samuel included a reverter clause in the deed that would require the city to give the land back to the Stewart family if it wasn’t developed into an airport. During the Great Depression, the city worked on clearing and leveling the landscape with what funds and labor it could glean from the federal WPA programs.

Meanwhile, the military was increasing its use of aviation tactics and a small air corps was founded at West Point in 1927. That detachment flew seaplanes from amphibious hangers anchored in the Hudson River. In the mid-1930’s, Douglas MacArthur sent an emissary to discreetly talk to Archie Stewart about the possibility of acquiring Newburgh’s fledgling airport so the USMA program could expand and work year-round. Archie took the offer to the city leaders and cleared it with his uncle and a deal was struck to give the Newburgh Airport to USMA as a training site for aviation classes. From 1936 to 1941, bills went through congressional channels to acquire the site as federal property and name it in honor of old Lachlan Stewart. Stewart Field was dedicated August 26, 1942 and 245 cadets began basic flying instruction there immediately since their training had been intensified after Pearl Harbor’s bombing. A temporary post grew around the training field and the first enlisted personnel lived in a tent city connected by corduroy log streets until barracks and roads could be built. Not even the opening ceremonies stopped the training schedule and the Stewart Field Commanding Officer apologized in the press for allowing only two hours of drive-through visiting by Newburghers curious to see the new base that August day.

The base was turned over by the Army to the new Department of the Air Force in 1947 and within 20 years, Stewart Field had a garrison strength of over 3000 military and hundreds of civilian employees. It is no wonder that it was such an anchor for the Newburgh economy. Stewart expanded to 1550 acres by the time it was decommissioned by the Air Force in 1969 and sold to the Metropolitan Transit Authority to return to its mission as a regional civilian commercial airport.

One of the best of the human interest items I learned reading about Stewart Field was the WWII song written by the Army air corpsmen stationed there. To the tune of The Beer Barrel Polka, the young recruits sang this song as they worked on their aircraft:

“Roll out the P.T.s, B.T.s and even L Ones
Roll out the O.A.s